Closeted
by ciaan
Summary: Or: Four Times The Team Found Superboy Sleeping Somewhere Weird And One Time They Didn't


Wally arrived at Mount Justice on Saturday morning just in time to see the Batplane leaving, so he raced over and then walked in with Robin from the landing pad.

There was no one in the main meeting room so they wandered down the hallway toward the bedrooms and saw Miss Martian knocking on Superboy's door.

"Superboy?" she called. "I made pancakes for breakfast."

"Heeeey there." Wally grinned at her. "I love your cooking."

There was no answer from Superboy's room. No sound at all.

Robin reached out and pushed and the unlocked door swung open. The room was empty. "Guess he's already up," Robin said.

"I haven't seen him this morning," Miss Martian replied. She had a cute little frown.

Wally raced all through the mountain, searching everywhere. As he passed through the kitchen he ate three of the burned pancakes sitting there. But no Superboy anywhere. Maybe he was outside?

He returned to Superboy's room. Robin was talking now. "He's probably just sulking. He'll show up for the meeting."

"Didn't see him," Wally exclaimed, "but I thought of something!" He threw open the door of Superboy's closet to reveal the clone standing there with his eyes closed, fully dressed yet fast asleep next to a row of empty hangers and one ripped white solar suit. "He did that at my house, too."

"Superboy likes being in the closet?" Miss Martian asked. Robin giggled.

"Hey, Supey, come out of the closet!" Wally yelled at him. Robin giggled even more.

Superboy opened his eyes and glared at them.

"I made pancakes," Miss Martian offered. Then she backed up a step, lifted off, and flew out of the room, sighing, as Superboy kept glaring.

Wally figured Supey wasn't a morning person, and grabbed Rob and ran out of there.

~#~#~

Kaldur entered the bathroom in the middle of the night without turning on the lights. It was right next to his bedroom, and he couldn't sneak away to the ocean without abandoning his post here if there were an alarm overnight, but he could do this. He was as quiet as possible, though, because he didn't really want the others to know about it. He didn't need to do it, but he wanted to, and it made him feel more comfortable.

He had already turned on the tap and water was pouring into the bathtub when his eyes adjusted better to the gloom and he could see the feet in one of the shower stalls. The shower was not on. The feet were not moving. The feet were wearing fuzzy slippers.

Kaldur left the water running and slowly walked to the shower to make sure that whoever it was wasn't in trouble somehow.

When he eased the door open he saw Superboy standing there. He was asleep, leaning into the corner of the stall. He appeared to be wearing a pair of pajamas with tiny Supermen flying all over them.

Superboy opened his eyes, blinking at Kaldur.

"It reminds you of your tube," Kaldur said. Superboy nodded. "You sleep better this way. You have not yet learned to sleep lying in a bed."

Superboy looked annoyed and embarrassed. Kaldur gestured behind himself at the tub filling with water. There was a land saying for this.

"I won't tell if you won't?"

Superboy cocked his head to the side and then grinned shyly. "Okay. Deal."

Kaldur smiled at him in return and shut the door again, heading toward the bathtub and a more restful sleep.

~#~#~

M'gann skipped into the kitchen, ready to try a new breakfast today. Yesterday it had been huevos rancheros, the day before that, idli. This morning she was looking forward to the fry-up. There were so many ingredients to it, yet all of them could be fried!

She was very glad the stove here was of the electric type. She had seen pictures of a gas stove and it seemed like a horrific instrument to have in the kitchen.

She headed toward the pantry and then stopped.

Superboy was in there. Asleep. Wearing only underwear. The kind she thought were called boxers, though they didn't seem to have anything to do with boxing. His head was leaning on a large bag of flour on an upper shelf. The boxers were black with a yellow S-shield on the side.

Superboy hadn't woken up yet, and M'gann put her finger to her lips in a Human gesture and used her telekinesis to slowly ease the can of beans and bag of potatoes she wanted out of the pantry. Then she tiptoed back to the counter. She would be very quiet, and Superboy would wake up to the delicious smells of frying potatoes and tomatoes, and then hopefully he would eat breakfast with her and smile.

Or he would stomp out of the room again like every other time.

But there was always hope.

~#~#~

Dick finally beat his video game. He had been a little hindered at the end because Kid Flash had fallen asleep next to him on the sofa and kept drooping over and drooling on Dick's shoulder. When Dick set his controller down Kid Flash flopped over even further and his head landed on Dick's thigh. Dick sighed, then leaned down and pinched Kid Flash's cheek.

There was a yelp and a red blur and Kid Flash was on the other side of the room, rubbing his face, and Dick's shoulder and thigh were still damp. Dick glared. Aqualad and Miss Martian looked up from where they had been talking at the conference table.

"If you have nothing better to do at the moment," Aqualad said stoically, "perhaps we can review the blueprints for tonight's mission again? Where is Superboy?"

Kid Flash shrugged, still frowning at Dick, and Miss Martian shook her head. Dick held up a hand, tapped on his computer, and then frowned as well. "His communicator is still in this room. Right over there." He pointed at the wall on his left, directly at... the door of the storage closet.

All four of them sighed.

Kid Flash ran over and yanked open the door, and there was Superboy.

Dick had to admit that maybe Superboy was making a little progress, as this time he was at least sitting on the floor with his arms around himself, booted feet up on a spare harddrive, head propped against a mop handle.

"Supey, you're still in the closet?" Kid Flash said, and Dick couldn't help himself, he had to laugh. "You haven't come out yet?"

"Coming out is a lifelong process," Dick said between giggles. "You have to do it over and over."

Superboy twisted his mouth in annoyance as he stood up. "Why do you keep laughing at the word closet?" he growled. "What does it mean?" Dick looked around at the matching confusion on Miss Martian and Aqualad's faces, then met Kid Flash's eyes, and the two of them cracked up.

~#~#~

Superboy yawned and stretched, then blinked at the TV. A moment ago he had been watching a documentary on bats yet now the TV was telling him about sharks. He looked around the empty, dark room. His head was fuzzy and he felt like he'd just been asleep.

He had. He had been asleep. He'd fallen asleep lying on the sofa while watching TV.

He clutched the cushion tighter to his chest. Hopefully he could accomplish it again.


End file.
